The 1993-94 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) collected data from ever-married women under the age of 50 about the dates of birth and survival of all their children. The Follow-up Verbal Autopsy Study was conducted to try to find out the causes of death of those children who had died. The deaths investigated were those that had occurred between the beginning of 1989 and the survey date and for which the age at death was under five years. The purpose of obtaining this information was to identify the main health risks of children in Bangladesh, so that appropriate health programs could be implemented to target major causes of death.

The study contract was awarded by the JHU, Baltimore, USA, and funded by the USAID, Dhaka.